The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsA gentle, loving, way to solve your child's sleep issues
Our 15 month old son has had difficulty sleeping since infancy. He suffered from acid reflux, regular runny noses and ear infections for several months as a baby and this had an impact on his ability to sleep well. He would scream when laid down in his cot and although he would quieten when lifted, he would then fight sleep for hours until he was so overtired, it was even...

2.0 out of 5 starsNot Useful
We bought this book to only find out from Pantley that our child is normal and that we are normal. There are no "solutions" per se and we find this book utterly useless. Most parents would be able to find her ideas of slowly weaning off children of your presence during night times anywhere and Pantley isn't the only one who has included this piece of wisdom in their book...

Our 15 month old son has had difficulty sleeping since infancy. He suffered from acid reflux, regular runny noses and ear infections for several months as a baby and this had an impact on his ability to sleep well. He would scream when laid down in his cot and although he would quieten when lifted, he would then fight sleep for hours until he was so overtired, it was even more difficult for him to settle down to sleep. Although his health problems are behind him, the legacy of his sleep problems remain. We tried so many different ways of settling him to sleep and have him sleep through the night, including staying with him and the crying it out approach. Neither of them provided any particular level of success. Our older son, who has always slept well was our benchmark and when nothing we tried seemed to work with our younger son, we became confused, disillusioned, anxious and felt guilty about the way we were approaching our son's sleeptimes. Then I read Elizabeth Pantley's book and everything is beginning to turn around.I liked it firstly because I had never seen a book focusing specifically on toddlers and pre-schoolers before and I was keen not to try and make suggestions made in other baby sleep books 'fit' around our toddler son. From its first pages, Elizabeth's advice is practical, gentle, loving and designed to suit a variety of family circumstances. She does not advocate a one size fits all approach, rather giving several suggestions to each particular sleep issue, which you can choose from based on your own particular family situation. Nor does she suggest that her advice will offer a quick fix solution to your child's sleep difficulties. Persistence and patience are required, however, if like us, you have persisted with other methods which haven't worked, these gentle, more loving solutions are much easier to follow and will hopefully meet your child's needs and make you feel a lot better about yourself as a parent!Her sleep logs can be printed and completed to give you a baseline on which to base your sleep plan. She gives 'Eight sleep tips for every child', before offering solutions for the widest variety of invidual sleep difficulties. I read the book from cover to cover but you could just as easily dip in and out of chapters depending on what particular issues you are facing. Perhaps most importantly for us, Elizabeth's advice has allowed us to really listen to our son and as a result to meet his sleep needs far better than we were before. Despite the fact that we believed we had a consistent bedtime routine, which we had always followed for our older child, a few changes based on Elizabeth's advice have made bedtime a less stressful, more gentle, loving, fun and special time for us all as a family. Our son is settling to sleep quicker and without tears and is sleeping longer through the night. If you have a toddler or pre-schooler who has difficulty with sleep and as a result, so do you, then I recommend that you read this book!

My youngest son has never been a fantastic sleeper, I had always put a bad night down to something. We had a routine and he was going down to sleep great ( great for naps too) although the quality and amount of night time sleep wasnt great and at 19/20months - something just changed and made it all worse, he wouldnt go down at all for bedtime or naps. 5am and 5.30am wake ups were also just to early. My toddler was a different little boy, crying all day, clingy and the the fact both my husband and I were completely exhausted due to the lack of sleep. I had tried all logical ideas but I think I was so tired I was looking for a quick fix, an instant solution.

This book firstly lets you know you are not on your own and what is going on is normal ( as I had never had any sleep issues with my eldest, I was completely thrown with my youngest). She also tells you there are no quick fixes and to give ideas and routines time. I began to look at my routines and realised when we begin to log our routine they could be tightened up a little. We started to see a changed after about a week and then something else would happen, you know children they dont stay the same for to long and like to keep you on your toes. Therefore I was able to use this book as a reference if other issues cropped up.

I have had the book 4 weeks now and I would say my 22 month old son is now showing clear signs that he needs to go to bed, is sleeping longer, and his quality of sleep is less disturbed. We found his mattress was too firm ( although we bought him a thick pad to go over it when he was 10 months). We currently have an ikea bunkbed mattress on the floor and he is sleeping much better and 80% of nights are 11hrs solid with a 1.5-2.5hr nap( use to be 7-9hrs) and I feel they are getting better too. My husband and and I are rested and can now cope with a "bad night" now and again.

My friend also bought this book after I told her what I had tried, she made a could of little changes and actually had instant results, again she watched for the signs of her childs bed time and stuck to the routine.

A brilliant book. One of those books that I think every parent would benefit from reading. It is written in a very friendly, caring and non-judgemental way that makes you see tackling sleep problems as something positive rather than something to be dreaded! It covers facts on sleep, sleep tips and advice on tackling all sorts of problems from bedtime battles to separation anxiety.It is very easy to read/use and shows you how to draw up a sleep plan that is suitable for your family. I started using tips from day one of receiving my book as it is very easy to dip in and out of and get some good ideas before you read it from cover to cover. I think it's a good investment as I am sure my sons sleep issues will change as he gets older and I will just be able to refer to it as different issues arise such as ,nightime fears.

As long as you have an open mind and want to have a healthy relationship with your childwithout traumatizing him/her, then I would recomend this book to you.It have something for everyone and every situation.

This book was our saving grace and recommended for everyone!Our daughter began waking during the night when she was 6 months old. It was a real concern since sleep is so important for children. We all went sleep deprived (mainly mommy and daddy) for a year. We thought we tried everything.Then we read this book and incorporated several ideas. And they worked! Within one week our daughter was sleeping through the night. And so were we! ;-)Thank you Elizabeth!

After thousands of years, one would suppose appropriate sleep routines would be ingrained in our traditional childrearing practices, but somehow we've lapsed, so it's fortunate Elizabeth Pantley felt called to retrain us in mindful, deliberate ways to support children's healthful rest.Following her insightful, reliable guide to helping babies settle into sleep better (No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night 2002), Pantley presents the next step, a fresh look at sleep issues with practical, logical help for parents of older children.She gives sound information, wise, caring opinions, and down-to-earth strategies such as her "gentle removal plan" and morning fairy rewards, but no harsh, extinction-based or cry-it-out "programs" to follow. With respect for children and parents, in understandable, friendly language, she explains basic normal sleep patterns and problems, lays out how to develop customized "sleep plans," and offers general tips, precautions, and a variety of options parents might consider.Her material is well organized with a useful table of contents and extensive index, and she covers, in detail, aspects of sleep other resources overlook. The topic of nursing toddlers at bedtime, for example, is treated with specific step-by-step advice. Again and again, Pantley provides the prep work for parents' decisionmaking with multifaceted, cogent overviews, such as the evaluation of mechanics, construction, and coziness of beds and cribs including child preferences and participation, safety, bedding, allergens, placement and environment.In a positive, sympathetic manner, she knowledgeably assists readers thinking through such subjects as schedules, napping, waking, dreams, fears, tooth grinding, bed-wetting, separation, transferring beds, adoption, twins, snoring, normal problems vs actual disorders, and daylight saving changes. With brevity and substance, she jogs parents' awareness to help them work out their own choices for their own families.Pantley is a dedicated researcher with a mother's perspective who converts what she studies into accessible, compassionate guidance with real life application. She has a gift for clarity and is responsible about facts and data, as evidenced by her approach to putting the book together: Forty-four volunteer test families around the world, of varied configurations, read her initial manuscript and followed Pantley's directions, reporting back to let her "peek into their naptime and bedtime routines, problems and successes," and 245 families completed extensive sleep surveys. (Interesting snapshots of some of their sleeping children in various circumstances- a two-year-old's feet extended over the top of carpeted stairs, siblings entwined, sound asleep fathers snuggling, a three year old tipped forward from an upholstered chair onto a foot stool- are interspersed among the text, a sweet touch.)As in her other encouraging works, Pantley puts her heart into this one. The understanding and patience she imparts diminish parental frustration and the versatile selection of practical ideas helps families handle challenging adjustments sensibly.The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers should become a basic parenting standby.

I purchased this book thinking that Pantley's 'infant sleep solution' wouldn't be appropriate for our 13 month old. I'm glad that we picked the toddler version - it offered us a great host of suggestions. Some things we certainly couldn't apply to our daughter since she is simply not old enough, but planning out her sleep schedule greatly helped us. In particular, deciding on an earlier bedtime (1/2 hour has made all the difference) and insisting on a wake-up time (we were allowing her to start her day as early as 4:30 a.m.). The going was rough for only a couple of weeks. Our daughter has NEVER slept through the night and now we have had a full consectutuve week of sleeping through the night. We are SO much happier, and so is our daughter! I highly reccommend this book to anyone with toddler sleep issues. I know that my husband and I will reference this book again and again as our daughter grows and her needs change.

We bought this book to only find out from Pantley that our child is normal and that we are normal. There are no "solutions" per se and we find this book utterly useless. Most parents would be able to find her ideas of slowly weaning off children of your presence during night times anywhere and Pantley isn't the only one who has included this piece of wisdom in their book. Her ideas seem recycled, are mostly common sense and you could probably find more useful information elsewhere. I give it a 2 only because it's somewhat useful if you're a very anxious parent or you just need some reassurance.